Like Deputy Quinlivan, I have people coming into my office every week who are absolutely distraught because they cannot afford to keep renting where they are currently renting, they have got a notice to quit and are trying to find somewhere else or, for whatever family reason, they have to leave their current accommodation. I am sure there are many thousands of such people who waited with bated breath for the Minister's budget speech last week, hoping for some type of rent relief measure or, at the very minimum, so…

Has a review been conducted by the Department or the Charities Regulator on whether the work of the regulator and its €4 million annual budget is delivering increased confidence in and within charities?

I am raising this because I got several complaints from registered charities that are having huge problems with bogus charities using their names to collect clothes. Criminals who were doing this were traced to a yard in my area in Blanchardstown. A registered charity sent me the following: Over the last two years we have been fighting to put a stop to bogus collections being done using our name and logo. We found the yard and clothes were being sold and stored and contacted the gardaí in Blanchardstown. Unfortunat…

The critical issue we are facing is that although the Minister of State says that 91% of people say they have reasonable trust in the Charities Regulator, including 36% who have strong confidence in it, that shows that the regulator still has a long way to go. For people who are working in the charity sector and for the community it is essential that we have a much higher level of trust in the regulator to do the job it is supposed to do. That job is to ensure we have confidence that when we are donating to a chari…

I commend the new fund the Minister of State talked about regarding community centres. This originated from my constituency in Hartstown and Huntstown, where there was a major concern about two community centres closing. My concern, and I have not seen any of the detail, although the Government will be publishing it soon, is with regard to whether this is for non-local authority owned community centres or if local authorities can use some of this funding for their own community centres. A significant concern for th…

I welcome the extra funding for the social inclusion and community activation programme, SICAP. A period of catch-up is needed to deal with the issues around poverty, disadvantage and inclusion within our communities, due to the savage cuts of the past ten years carried out by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I have concerns about the stand-alone community centres fund. It is something for which I and others fought long and hard in recent years, given the threat of closure of our local community centres in Hartstown and …

I welcome the strategy and commend all those involved in producing it. If implemented, it will have a significant impact on young people at risk and help to divert them from criminal and antisocial behaviour. As a former co-ordinator of Meitheal and the child and family support networks, CFSNs, with Tusla, in the Dublin 17 area, I saw incredible results yielded by a parent and child led process that puts the young person firmly at its centre. However, the process fell down regularly because of the serious resource …

I would like to raise the issue of Riversdale Community College. I visited the school in the last couple of weeks to check in on the works going on with Danu special school. To say I was shocked to see the condition of the school is an understatement. It resembles a building site with only one way in and one way out. This work was due to start in the summer but it appears now that it will continue up to next April, May, June or July. Nobody knows when it will be concluded because the communication with the Dublin a…

-----who can see the great work being done on the Danu special school that is being built at the moment in the same complex.

It is going to be a brand new, up to the range-----

It is important that we get this done.

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. We do not seem to have a coherent strategy on the development of this industry and its impact on our current electricity and water infrastructure. It seems planning applications are made and decided at local level in local authorities. How are we planning to reduce the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity at a time when we will have 1 million extra electric cars, hundreds of data centres and an increase in population of more than 1 million people…

I have an email folder full of stories of ordinary people who are struggling to rent and buy at the moment. Some have been on social housing lists for more than ten years. Unfortunately, this is not a housing for all strategy, but more of the same failed Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael housing policies that created the crisis in the first place. A constituent wrote the following to me this week: I am writing to you again to vent my desperation with regards to my housing situation and ask for some help. I am 35 years old …

I echo the comments of previous speakers about the Irish Refugee Council and some of the requests it has made with regard to this situation. We all have seen the horrors on our television screens. We have seen the desperation of people who are trying to get out of Afghanistan and who are facing the Taliban, particularly in the scenes at Kabul Airport in the final days of the American occupation. There is no doubt that the situation in Afghanistan at the moment is extremely worrying but it is even more worrying for …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I will be sharing my time with Deputy Seán Crowe. I acknowledge that the Government is not opposing this Bill and I hope that some if not all of the elements of it will be in the Government's long-awaited legislation dealing with illegal and dangerous scramblers and quads that are being ridden in our parks and open spaces. I say "long-awaited" because the Tánaiste stated in February 2020, when Deputy Ellis brought this Bill forward, that the Government would have l…

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. I ask him if he could try to make it a little longer in future, maybe by adding a few paragraphs, so we can go through it in the time we have and really get into the nuts and bolts of the issue. I look forward to the publication of the Government's legislation in the coming weeks. I also thank Deputy Farrell for his contribution because if we can move forward and support the legislation, we will do so, if it helps in our community, the Deputy's community and every…

Will the Minister ensure that a dedicated training and development strategy is developed and fully funded for the charitable, voluntary and community sector in budget 2022? As we know, training is not a luxury. It is essential for all community, voluntary and charity sector projects to enable them to deliver a quality service.

I appreciate the answer given by the Minister of State in respect of the training needs and proposals outlined. One major concern has been whether these schemes will be funded. We get copious reports, documents and proposals relating to many different schemes, but the proof of the pudding will be in whether the funding will be available to deliver the quality training to which the Minister of State referred. Some current projects have been unable to provide much-needed training for their workers during the past ten…

I understand and acknowledge the Minister of State's comments on PPNs and other aspects of training. The focus is on community, voluntary and charity groups. I have been involved in projects over the years which have specific and ongoing training needs. One example involves supporting older drug users and others include community development projects supporting vulnerable communities. The training is ongoing. A budget awarded for a project at the beginning of the year enables them to provide that quality training. …

I welcome the motion. The Covid pandemic has provided us with enormous challenges, and I acknowledge that there are no easy answers and that every decision made on this is a very difficult one that has to be made. With those challenges, however, comes a huge responsibility on those making those decisions to consult as many people as possible to get as wide an agreement as possible on the opening up of our country. Unfortunately, the experience over the past 24 hours has shown that the Government has failed miserabl…